“What is man’s worst enemy?”
“Anger.”
“What disease will never have a cure?”
“Greed is incurable.”
The yaksha smiled again. “A last question, my friend.
What is life’s biggest irony?”
“It is the desire to live eternally.
Every day, we encounter people dying
but we always think that death will
never come to us.”
“Yudhishthira,” said the yaksha. “I am pleased with
your answers. So I will grant you the life of any one of
your brothers.”
“I choose Nakula,” responded Yudhishthira immediately.
“Yudhishthira, you will need warriors like Arjuna
or Bhima in the war that’s coming. What makes
you choose your stepbrother Nakula instead of
your mighty brothers?”
Yudhishthira bowed to the yaksha. “My father,
Pandu, had two wives, Kunti and Madri,” he explained.
“While my mother, Kunti, had three sons, mother Madri
had twins – Nakula and Sahadeva. If I choose Arjuna
or Bhima, it will be unfair to my other mother, Madri,
who will be left with no sons of her own. I must be fair
and hence I choose one of her sons. That is the call
of dharma – to live with compassion and conscience,
without bias and in peace.”
The yaksha was delighted. “O Yudhishthira, I bless
you. You are truly a follower of your path. I grant back
the lives of all your brothers. From this day on, you will
also be known as Dharmaraja or the king of dharma.”
Thus Nakula, Sahadeva, Arjuna and Bhima came
back to life and together they knelt down in front
of the yaksha.
Yudhishthira said, “I am sure that you aren’t just
a yaksha. You killed my four brothers within seconds
and you revived them equally quickly. You must be
Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva or someone just as powerful.
Will you please reveal your true identity to us?”
The yaksha then transformed into Yamaraja, the god
of death. “I bless all of you,” he said, smiling. “I am the
one who went to the poor man in the form of the deer,
causing you to come here. I would like to give you
a boon. Tell me, what would you like?”
“O Yamaraja, give us a boon that will allow us to
live the thirteenth year of our exile in anonymity,
as is the condition of the bet that we lost. If we are
recognised, then we are bound to repeat the thirteen
years of exile again. Please help us disguise ourselves
during that year,” said Yudhishthira.
“So be it,” said Yamaraja.Nakula. Ignoring the voice, he bent down to drink
the water again.
The voice repeated the warning. But by then,
Nakula was too thirsty and drank the water.
Satisfied, he turned around and started walking away
from the pond. Suddenly, he fell to the ground and died.
Meanwhile, Yudhishthira was starting to get worried
about Nakula. He said to Sahadeva, “Go and find out
what’s taking Nakula so long.”
The tired and hungry Sahadeva reached the same
pond and saw his younger brother lying dead on
one side. Shocked and upset, he took a few minutes
to calm down and then, unable to take the thirst any
more, hurried to the pond to drink some water.
As soon as he touched the water, the voice warned
him, “Be careful, young man. Stop whatever
you are doing and listen to me first. If you don’t,
you will share the same fate as that man lying there.”
Disregarding the warning, Sahadeva drank the water
and immediately fell dead.
When Sahadeva also didn’t come back, Yudhishthira
turned to Arjuna. “Take your bow and arrow and find our
brothers,” he said to the master archer. “I suspect some
danger has befallen Nakula and Sahadeva.”
Arjuna saw his dead brothers lying near the pond,
and looked around carefully for the hidden foe. Then,
overcome by thirst, he, too, bent close to the water.
Right on cue, the voice repeated its warning to Arjuna.
“Show yourself! Come out and talk
to me,” Arjuna roared. “If you don’t, I will use my
shabdavedi arrow and destroy you.”
Without waiting for the voice to respond, Arjuna
drank the water and dropped dead immediately.
Now, Yudhishthira sent the mighty Bhima,
the strongest of the five brothers, to the pond. When
Bhima saw Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva and heard
the voice, he shook in anger, but the same fate befell
him as well.
Finally, the weary and thirsty Yudhishthira trudged
to the pond himself. When he saw his brothers lying
dead on the ground, he rushed to examine them.
There were no physical injuries on their bodies.
Yudhishthira understood that they had not been
in a fight and that some other forces were at play.
Yudhishthira went closer to the pond to have a sip
of water. Just as he was about to commit the same
mistake as his brothers, the voice spoke yet again.
“My child, stop. I own this pond and you can’t drink
the water unless I say so. See what happened to your
brothers because of their arrogance. I only want to ask
you some questions and hear your replies. Then I will
decide whether you can drink from the pond or not.”
Yudhishthira thought for a while and stepped back.
“Fine,’ he said. “Ask me your questions. I will try my
best to answer them... but, tell me first, who are you?”
Suddenly, Yudhishthira saw a yaksha approaching
him. The being sat in front of him and began firing
questions rapidly at him.
“What is bigger than the Earth?” the yaksha asked.
“A mother,” replied Yudhishthira.
“What is taller than the sky?”
“A father.”
“What is faster than the wind?”
“The mind, of course.” Yudhishthira smiled.
“What grows faster than hay?”
“Worry.”
“What is the greatest dharma in the world?” queried
the yaksha.
“Compassion and conscience.”
“With whom is friendship never-ending?”
“With good people,” responded Yudhishthira
patiently.
“What is the secret to never feeling unhappy?”
“If one can control his or her mind,
then that person will never feel sad.”
The yaksha increased his pace now. “What is
the greatest kind of wealth?”
“Education.”
“What is the greatest kind of profit?”
“Health.”
“What is the greatest kind of happiness?”
“Contentment,” said Yudhishthira, ever
prompt with his replies.“O Yudhishthira,
I bless you. You are truly
a follower of your path.
I grant back the lives
of all your brothers.
From this day on,
you will also be known
as Dharmaraja
or the king of dharma”
February 2017 63